US Gov’t Eyeing Offshore Wind Lease Sale in Guam in 2028; Completes Hawaii Port Study, Fifth Task Force Meeting

August 27, 2024, by Adrijana Buljan

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the US State of Hawaii held the fifth task force meeting on 22 August as part of the work to determine a potential path forward for offshore wind planning in the state. As reported in April, BOEM is looking to organise the first-ever offshore wind lease sale in Hawaii and potentially a US Territory, most likely Guam, in 2028.

In April, the US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a new five-year offshore wind leasing schedule for up to 12 potential lease sales through 2028. According to the schedule, at the end of this timeline, the government plans to hold the second round of auctions in California and the Gulf of Maine, and the first lease sales for offshore wind in Hawaii and a US Territory.

In an information sheet issued in April, BOEM identifies the US Territory that may also see its first offshore wind lease sale in four years to be either Guam or a territory in the Caribbean Region.

According to the federal agency, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) amended the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) to allow for wind energy leasing to take place offshore the US territories.

BOEM stated in the information sheet that the Governor of Guam had expressed interest in moving forward with planning for offshore wind. Furthermore, the agency has had preliminary engagement with the government of Puerto Rico and has also contacted the US Virgin Islands.

“BOEM plans to conduct stakeholder engagement with these territories and, if suitable areas are identified and interest persists, BOEM expects a lease sale could take place as early as 2028.”

BOEM and the Government of Guam have established the BOEM Guam Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, initiating the first planning step in the BOEM renewable energy authorisation process.

According to information on the federal agency’s website, the inaugural BOEM Guam Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force meeting will be held on 11 September 2024.

In Hawaii, the work towards the state’s first lease sale is progressing with studies completed and five intergovernmental renewable energy task force meetings held so far, with the latest one organised on 22 August in Honolulu.

This July, BOEM issued the Hawai’i Floating Offshore Wind Regional Ports Assessment report after completing a study that analysed the current and planned infrastructure of Hawaii ports to assess their ability to support floating wind.

BOEM and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) deployed a floating LiDAR offshore Hawaii, east of Oahu, in December 2022.

In 2014 and 2015, BOEM received three unsolicited wind energy lease requests from two potential developers, two from AW Hawaii Wind, part of the Danish Alpha Wind Energy group, and one from Progression Hawaii Offshore Wind, a US-based floating wind developer.

Each project has been proposed to have a capacity of 400 MW.

In 2016, Equinor (known as Statoil at the time) emerged as a third party interested in developing offshore wind projects in the state as BOEM published a Call for Information and Nominations for additional nominations from companies interested in commercial wind energy leases within a Call Area the agency identified offshore Hawaii.

After closing the Call period, BOEM started the Area Identification stage of the leasing process to identify areas for environmental analysis and consideration for leasing and then announced its intent to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) of potential commercial wind leasing and site assessment activities on the ocean continental shelf offshore the island of Oahu.

In 2021, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory published The Cost and Feasibility of Floating Offshore Wind Energy in the Oahu Region study, which provides estimates of the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE) of offshore wind in the region surrounding Oahu and investigates topics relevant to planning for offshore wind.